Rugbeer: The vending machine you have to tackle to get your beer

Vending machines aren’t usually designed to be hit, shaken or shoved. In fact, such behavior could well result in the perpetrator being done for criminal damage.

Makers of a vending machine in Argentina, however, have designed one which you have totackle to get your beer.

The Rugbeer machines, designed by creative agency Ogilvy for beer brand Cerveza Salta, have reportedly proved popular with drinkers in the rugby-loving Salta Province located in the north of the country.

According to the beer company, the unique machine has helped boost sales of Cerveza Salta by 25 percent in bars where it was installed. We’re wondering if there’s been a rise in the number of shoulder dislocations, too.

After inserting the necessary coins, the drinker is required to ram the vending machine at speed. A so-called ‘pussy meter’ on the front of the machine indicates the strength of your hit — a woeful whack won’t deliver a beer, while a solid smash will.

Of course, Cerveza Salta’s novel creation isn’t the first company to use a vending machine as part of a marketing campaign. A couple of months back, Coca Cola came up with one that requires a hug rather than a slam before it dispenses a drink. Then there’s Kraft with its iSample machine — equipped with sensors, the machine would ‘read’ the faces of those using it and offer a dessert based on their calculated age. And there’s one in Japan that offers free Wi-Fi (as well as drinks).

With Cerveza Salta’s offering, one hopes there’s no confusion over which vending machines demand to be rammed and which don’t. Imagine the carnage that would ensue if someone ran headlong into a machine which they thought was a Rugbeer machine, but sadly wasn’t.

With commercial operators in mind, the U.S. government is looking to loosen restrictions on drone flights with a set of proposals that would allow the machines greater freedom to fly over populated areas and also at night.

The length of Saturn's day has always been a challenge to calculate because of the planet's non-solid surface and magnetic field. But now scientists have tracked vibrations in the rings to pin down a final answer.

Tiny robots modeled after bacteria could be used to deliver drugs to hard to reach areas of the human body. Scientists have developed elastic microbots that can change their shape depending on their environment.

The number of asteroids pummeling Earth jumped dramatically around 290 million years ago. By looking at Moon craters, scientists discovered that d the number of asteroid impacts on both Earth and the Moon increased by two to three times.

Saturn's rings are younger than previously believed, according to new data gathered from the Cassini mission. The rings are certainly less than 100 million years old and perhaps as young as 10 million years old.

Scientists from Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology have developed a system which can continuously produce electrical energy and hydrogen by dissolving carbon dioxide in an aqueous solution.

Our Sun will gradually fade before expanding into a red giant at the end of its life. But larger mass stars undergo extreme explosive events called hypernovas when they die which outshine their entire galaxies.

Airbus says advancements in artificial intelligence can help it toward its goal of building a plane capable of fully autonomous flight, though whether passengers can be persuaded to travel in one is another matter entirely.

Amazon workers at its fulfillment centers are using "tech vests" to help protect them from collisions with their robot co-workers. The robots already have obstacle avoidance sensors, but the belt offers another layer of safety.